Assange reverse-ferrets on promise to fly to US post-Manning clemency If US investigators were hoping WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange would be deliver himself into their hands, then they are due for a disappointment. Last Thursday, WikiLeaks tweeted that the longest-staying guest in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London would allow American prosecutors to extradite him if President Obama issued …
"reverse-ferrets" perfectly describes Julian Assange and well done for whoever thought that one up.
Assange is still happy to come to the US provided all his rights are guarenteed
I am sure they will be guarenteed: the right to be warehoused in ADX, live off gruel for the rest of your existence, watch a black and white TV with only religious programming and (most important) no contact at all with the media.
It seems like an offer without substance to me. How would Assange get to the US without being nabbed for jumping bail? And once in the hands of the UK again, why wouldn't the UK extradite him to Sweden? And, finally, the US has not asked for Assange's extradition. So what was he going to do, stand on the steps of the Department of Justice and look like a stupid tourist?
It seems like an offer without substance to me. How would Assange get to the US without being nabbed for jumping bail? And once in the hands of the UK again, why wouldn't the UK extradite him to Sweden? And, finally, the US has not asked for Assange's extradition. So what was he going to do, stand on the steps of the Department of Justice and look like a stupid tourist?
It had about as much weight and value as a politician's promise: none whatsoever. Not that that should have come as a surprise to anyone but the Severely Deluded™.
But hey, if Fake News is now de rigueur, so can be Fake Offers :)
... the US has not asked for Assange's extradition. So what was he going to do, stand on the steps of the Department of Justice and look like a stupid tourist?
Absolutely, I can't upvote you enough! The whole "US wants me" looks like misdirection, as the UK would certainly have extradited him and Sweden is very unlikely to accede to any such hypothetical demand. Look at UK -> USA treaty and Sweden -> USA treaty and past record.
"Assange is still happy to come to the US provided all his rights are guarenteed despite White House now saying Manning was not quid-quo-pro."
His rights are guaranteed but so are those of the people at Guantanamo so maybe that's not the panacea he thinks it is and no-one, least of all the White House ever said there was a deal/quid-pro-quo but keep trying to convince yourself that you're important. Just look at how he tried to screw Manning out of paying for her defense despite having made a huge deal about it.
"His rights are guaranteed but so are those of the people at Guantanamo..."
Except they're not. Prisoners in Guantanamo are not prisoners of war, so the geneva convention doesn't apply. They are not "criminals" by US defintion, so they dont have miranda rights nor any rights to be tried and represented in a court of law. They are "enemy combatants" under the Patriot I & II acts which specifically deny them a raft of other rights.
If Assange went to the US, I suspect he'd be treated better than the inmates of camp X-Ray.
http://www.ibanet.org/Human_Rights_Institute/About_the_HRI/HRI_Activities/Guantanamo_legal_status.aspx
Personally I'd prefer him to go offline and never be heard of again.
When he gets locked up (yes, I don't think that's really an "if" by now), any judge who terms Internet connectivity a Human Right ought to be reminded of the fact that he started as a hacker, Wikileaks was merely an effort to legitimise his actions.
That's clearly what he is saying he meant.
However in Manning's shoes, I'd be pretty happy with the current situation.
In all honestly, it's a good way to handle it. The law was still broken, but the punishment has been dropped. Assange doesn't look good in getting 99% of what he was wishing for, and acting insulted over the 1%.
"Pretty sure he meant a pardon."
He claims to be a "journalist". If so, then words are his trade. He said clemency, so that's what he meant. He's clever enough to have said pardon if that's what he meant. Pardon is shorter than clemency too, so why use a long word with a different meaning to a claimed intended shorter word with a very different meaning when every letter is using up vital "bandwidth"?
He's a lying bag of shite who may possibly have had some good motives in the past, but that is far overshadowed by his antics of the last few years.
Like the backdoor deal that Reagan negotiated with Iran to get the hostages released the day after he took office, unnecessarily prolonging their captivity for political purposes. After all, regardless of who hacked the emails, Wikileaks was a boon to the Trump campaign. Not saying it swung the election, but it certainly helped.
All Assange's talk about "surrendering to the US" when formal charges have never been filed, maybe it is a leadup to president Trump having the DOJ declare that no charges will be filed and no extradition will be sought.
Assuming that was the real reason he's in hiding, rather than to dodge Swedish authorities over the rape allegations that most at the time thought were part of a US plot to get him.
That's a nice theory.
Sadly I'm beginning to suspect the reality is much duller - he's not an American, he's not in America, and he's not the source of the leaks he published. So perhaps the Americans simply don't care as much about him as he (and many of us) assumed a few years ago?
So if the reason Assange fought his extradition to Sweden was that they would then send him to the US, and if Assange is now happy to go to the US, then it follows that he will no longer fight extradition to Sweden.
So if Assange now doesn't hand himself over to the Swedes, we can safely assume that the threat of ending up in the US wasn't actually the reason he was hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy.
No, no, no.
You're assigning logic to his actions and words, when the only only logic that applies is that he'll say and do whatever it takes to keep him in the limelight as much as possible.
Nothing he says is actually important, nor does it reflect in any way what his next actions will be, nor should his words be in any way considered truthful. He is a lying cowardly scumbag and will use anything and anyone to make us think otherwise.
He can stay in the Embassy for the rest of his miserable life. At least there, he can't rape anyone.
"So if Assange now doesn't hand himself over to the Swedes, we can safely assume that the threat of ending up in the US wasn't actually the reason he was hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy."
^ This. As soon as Trump officially becomes US president, I don't think he has anything to fear from the US so he can come out of hiding on Monday. If I he doesn't then it indicates that he's been more afraid of facing the Swedish legal system.
I never thought that Assange was ever on the USA's most wanted list anyway and their #1 target is, and always has been, getting Edward Snowdon back and putting him on trial (he really did serious damage to the US intelligence services, unlike Chelsea Manning who inconveniently exposed human rights abuses).
" I don't think he has anything to fear from the US so he can come out of hiding on Monday."
I hope he does. Then we can stop paying Police overtime to stand outside the embassy waiting for him and he can Got to Jail, Go Directly to Jail and Not Pass Go. Jumping bail is frowned quite strongly by the UK judicial systems, And once he's served time for the bail jumping, he can be sent to Sweden to face the music there! (Would ABBA be cruel and unusual punishment?) and then he can fade into obscurity.
> I must have missed it.
TPB trial on order from politicians after a visit in the US, Case even handled by the same DA that shortly before that had stated that TPB wasn't doing anything illegal.
Handing over Egyptians to the CIA for a drugged flight to Egypt for torture...
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